I'm putting together some skill challenges for D&D 4e, and I've come across some inconsistencies that I can't quite reconcile.
Let's take as an example: a single check in the context of a moderate level 4 skill challenge.
The DM Guide (p73) refers me to the table Difficulty Class and Damage by Level (p42). The entry for L4/moderate is 17. But there's a note underneath: For skill checks: Increase DCs by 5. I can't tell if this applies to skill checks in isolation during combat (which is the context of the rest of the page) or to all skill checks, ever. (If the latter, this begs the question: why not increase them all by five in the table and simplify the notes to For attacks...: Decrease by 2? Anyway...)
However, I also found this updated skill DCs table, which claims:
If you compare the new values to the DCs from the Dungeon Master’s Guide and DMG 2, you’ll notice that the DCs are higher across the board.
But the entry for L4/moderate is 14 — that's not higher than 17!
Where can I find the current, canonical, properly balanced DC numbers to use for skill challenges?